A/N: I do not own Soul Eater or any of its affiliated characters.

Well, he definitely wasn't very subtle. That's the thing Jacqui first noticed.

It wasn't really anything new, boys piquing an interest in any girl, not necessarily Kim, hot off the adrenaline of a victory for their school. Especially the members of Spartoi. And somebody as high profile as Death the Kidd probably had semi-human urges every once in awhile.

The question was whether it would turn out differently this time.

In almost every other situation, the boy that had taken interest more or less got rejected in some sort of humiliating way. Or maybe rejected was too blunt a word.

The rejection itself never literally left Kim's lips. After weeks of having to buy her things and never getting so much as a thank you in return though, they usually stopped coming around. (Except Ox. He was just kind of a moron with the inability to fathom body language. Or the word 'no'. Though it was debatable whether Kim hated this...)

This might be a different story. He definitely wasn't ugly. And his mannerisms were very gentleman-like. Good hygiene. Not overly obnoxious unless he was having one of his panic attacks over whether he'd fixed the toilet paper into a square…triangle…octagon…whatever. She was never really close enough to care.

This might be a good thing for her.

"Kim," Jacqui said quietly, leaning over to her best friend, "I think Kidd-kun has a crush on you."

Kim stared at her, eye twitching. She really loved Jacqui, but sometimes she was a little daft.

"He's been staring at you in class ever since we got back from vacation. You should ask him."

"Jacqui, I don't think that's it."

"All he does is stare at you," the brunette continued, glancing over again. His eyes never seemed to leave the pinkette. "You haven't gotten a confession in awhile. Maybe he wants to."

"I don't think I'm his type," Kim muttered, utterly sickened by the depth of which her weapon's cluelessness had sunk to.

Contrary to Jacqui's beliefs, this is how it actually was going down: Kidd followed them. Everywhere. But he never actually looked at Kim. It was always at Jacqui.

Maybe it was because Kim and Jacqui stuck so close together, but Kim knew better. Death the Kidd was infatuated with her partner.

She had to admit it wasn't a mistake so farfetched of her to make. Despite Jacqui's beauty, she didn't get nearly as many suitors as the perhaps more striking meister. But Jacqui had some qualities that Kim could definitely see Kidd liking. She was intriguing. She didn't go out of her way to try to be that way, but it just kind of happened. Even Kim had a hard time completely understanding her at times.

Class ended and the subject was dropped, but Kim held back a little to make sure she wasn't crazy.

Oh. Yep. There he goes.

Jacqui made her way out the door, waiting for Kim in the hall. The pink haired girl watched with amusement as Kidd casually walked past her and turned to head down the hall. His momentary glance at her backside did not go undetected by the witch's green eyes.

Whether you're socially retarded or just shy, I'm not sure, Kidd. But I'm feeling generous lately.

"She has cello practice after school, and it's not far from here," Kim said, folding her arms and grinning slyly. "Immediately after class."

"Why are you telling me this," Kidd asked, narrowing his eyes.

"I just figured you might want an opportunity to actually take your strange stalker tendencies in a different direction than they're going. Which is straight into a wall if you just continue to study her ass more than the lessons."

She appreciated that he had enough shame to blush and cringe at being found out.

"So you do like her?"

"I haven't really talked to her," he admitted, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "But she's probably the most beautiful girl I've ever seen."

Kim blinked in surprise.

"Wow. If you're brown nosing simply because I'm her friend you're doing a good job."

"It's the truth," he said seriously. "I've never seen someone so beautiful in their simplicity before. It's mind boggling. I could look at her all day."

Kim stared at him, a little creeped out.

"Let's just stick to calling her beautiful. And lay off on the stalking. Just, you know? Talk to her. She's nice. And she doesn't have a lot of guy friends."

She turned her green eyes to the ceiling and grinned. "I think you guy's would be cute. You just have to get to know her."

Kidd nodded and shifted his eyes to Kim's collar.

"Can you…fix that?" he asked, eyes sinking into his skull gradually. She raised an eyebrow and gave him a half lidded stare.

"You're so weird. Just remember; right after class. I'll ask you how it went later."

He watched her as she walked away, a trickle of sweat dripping down his neck at the fact that she'd ignored his request.

Time to go stare at Jacqui some more.

"I've been playing since I was four," Jacqui affirmed, smiling a little and readjusting the handle of the the cello's carrying case in her hand. Kidd blinked in surprise.

"So you can read music as well? That's amazing."

"Not really. It's necessary. Unless you're Soul-kun. He learns by sound most of the time. Though he can read music well. He's a genius."

Kidd couldn't argue with that. Soul was an excellent musician. Though, he supposed this resentment he felt that she had such high admiration for another guy other than himself was what jealousy felt like.

They walked in silence for a little longer and she glanced at his thoughtful gaze at the pavement.

"Kidd-kun, are you walking with me because you like Kim?"

Kidd fell over.

"ABSOLUTELY NOT," he yelled, gesturing wildly and giving her possibly one of the most pathetic looks she'd ever seen. She tried to cover her smile behind her hand.

"You don't have to be shy. A lot of guys talk to me if they want to get closer to Kim."

Kidd frowned deeply.

"That is not why I came with you. Kim is not the one I'm interested in."

Jacqui blinked. "Oh? Then-"

"Please do not count yourself out so easily," Kidd said quietly, looking a little hurt. He felt hypocritical since he hadn't even had the guts to talk to her without Kim's help, but she seemed too sure that nobody could have a real interest in her without an ulterior motive.

"I think you're very beautiful," he said with confidence, looking up to see they'd reached the building she practiced in. Her eyes widened as he turned to continue back the way they'd come.

"Kidd-kun."

He turned over his shoulder to see her wave awkwardly at him from the door. She sucked in her lips and the flicker of a blush passed over her face.

"I'll see you tomorrow." And then she was gone.

Kidd blinked his yellow eyes slowly and continued walking, a faint smile gracing his lips.

Guess that was an acceptable phase two.